Budget hotel group EasyHotel is set to continue its expansion into major and regional UK cities and European gateway cities as it reported a stronger than expected first half.
The group, which owns, develops, operates and franchises ‘super budget’ branded hotels, grew sales by 10.4% to £9.66m for the six months to March 31.
Total revenue was up 11.6% to £2.59m, slightly ahead of Board expectations, and like-for-like revenue for owned hotels increased by 8%.
Adjusted EBITDA was up 10.9% to £0.58m but profit before tax was down from £0.37m to £0.14m.
The group said this drop was due to increased pre-opening costs, depreciation and amortisation and share based payments.
CEO Guy Parsons said: "Trading in the first half of financial year 2015/16 was slightly ahead of the Board’s expectations as owned hotels started to benefit from the new revenue management strategy.
"This momentum has continued into the beginning of the second half, traditionally the busiest trading months of the year for hoteliers, and full year trading is on track to meet the Board’s expectations."
